Many athletic sports require a player to control the trajectory of a projectile (e.g., a ball, a puck, a javelin, a discus, a shotput, a hammer, or the like) during play, either by launching the projectile themselves or by hitting and/or returning the projectile launched by another player. Further, an athlete may typically perform any of multiple actions involving different desired trajectories based on strategy. For example, an athlete may train to perform multiple throwing or delivery techniques or may train to launch the projectile using a piece of equipment (e.g., a stick, a bat, a racquet, or the like) using multiple techniques to achieve a desired result. For instance, a baseball pitcher may train to perform multiple pitches, a cricket bowler may train to perform multiple deliveries, a hockey player may train to perform multiple shot types with a stick, a tennis, squash, or racquetball player play may train to perform multiple serves with a racquet. By way of another example, an athlete may train to hit an incoming ball (e.g., with a bat, a racquet, or the like) in different ways to achieve a desired result.
Regardless of the sport, each type of motion typically requires a different technique to achieve a desired trajectory (e.g., speed, distance, and/or rotation). Small changes in an athlete's technique may affect factors such as the launch angle, initial velocity, or rotation that may significantly impact the trajectory of the ball and thus whether an action (e.g., a throw, delivery, hit, shot, or the like) is deemed successful. Athletes thus often train on a field to view the motion of the projectile as feedback and attempt to adjust their techniques.
However, field practice is not always practical and may be insufficient to diagnose issues with launching or hitting techniques. For example, field practice may be limited by weather or access to facilities. By way of another example, athletes warming up for a game may be limited to sideline practice into nets that do not provide feedback to evaluate whether the actions would be successful on the field. For instance, practice swings of a bat may help an athlete mentally prepare for a pitch, but they may not provide meaningful feedback. Further, simply viewing a trajectory of a projectile in the real world during field practice does not provide detailed trajectory information and thus may provide only limited feedback for correcting or modifying technique. For example, merely observing an issue (e.g., lack of control of a throw, a hit, a shot, or the like) may be insufficient to solve the problem. Therefore, it may be desirable to provide systems and methods to cure the deficiencies identified above.